live from the israel gaza border, this is bbc news, i'm mark lowen. at least 27 people have been killed in gaza, including seven near food sites run by an israeli and us-backed foundation. the hamas run health authority in gaza says that means that a total of 72 palestinians have been killed in gaza in the... last 24 hours, i'm anita mcvay. the other main stories this hour, japan carries out its first execution in three years, the so-called twitter killer was convicted of murdering nine people. the democratic republic of congo and rwanda are expected to sign a historic deal in washington later aimed at bringing an end to decades of brutal fighting. and a massive climb down, the prime minister caves into labor rebels over changes to the benefit.

system. hello and a very warm welcome to bbc news. i'm mark lowen. we are broadcasting from the israel-gaza border for a day a of special coverage here on bbc news highlighting the situation on the ground in the gaza strip. let me just explain where we are. we're here at the karam shalom border crossing right at the confluence. of three different places, we've got egypt over there in the in the distance, that is the egyptian border, we are here on the israely side of the crossing with gaza, and there in the distance is the border gate into gaza, you can see there the uh the gray border crossing, which should be a place where uh aid trucks are carrying much needed food and medical supplies into gaza, but there have been no trucks crossing today, because once again the israeli government

have placed has placed a temporary block on aid getting into gaza, accusing hamas of stealing it. well, this all comes as at least 72 people have been killed in gaza in the last 24 hours. that's according to the health ministry there, which is run by hamas. speaking to the bbc earlier today, the head of the gaza humanitarian foundation, that is the israeli and us body which distributes aid in gaza, denied that hundred. of deaths from shootings are linked to its aid distribution centers. it all comes after the united states has said that it is giving 30 million dollars to the gaza humanitarian foundation, a very controversial body which began operations a month ago. well, on tuesday, the un said that some 400 people in gaza had been killed in recent weeks, many of them queing at sites run by the gaza.

humanitarian foundation, my colleagues at bbc verify, that is our fact checking department, have reviewed dozens of videos of people being gun down a t a distribution point, all of them have come in since the gaza humanitarian foundation began operating one month ago. here's bbc verifies, merlin thomas. after a month of us and israeli backed operations in gaza, there have been repeated reports of killings of palestinians trying to access aid. we've been investigating footage from gaza to see. just how dangerous it's become for palestinians. now, on may the 26th, the privately run gaza humanitarian foundation began its operations. this controversial new scheme, which bypasses the un's operations, was introduced after israel lifted its 11 week blockade on aid. there are three here in the south and one here in the north near an israeli security zone in known as the netsarim corridor. the distance between them sometimes forces palestinians to make long journeys, and in a war zone, that...

with added danger. in statements over the past month, the idf has repeatedly said it's fired warning shots at individuals who they described as suspects or said posed a threat. now, in videos we verified, you can see hundreds of people, some holding what appear to be empty flower sacks, scrambling over mounds of rubble, and hiding in ditches. several bursts of automatic gunfire can also be heard. the person who uploaded the video told us that the people had been traveling to access aid, sds4 from the coastal roads west of the netsorum corridor. we've also verified this video posted the next day. we know it was filmed nearby and you can see crowds panicking and then you can see what appears to be an explosion. video from the scene goes on to show a number of injured people, including children. the ghf announced secure routs for those who needed to access aid, and they are marked here in blue. now while analyzing videos relating to people trying to ac

said we found that several videos were located near to the sds4 distribution site. now each corridor has a start point and a stop point. palestines are warned that crossing without being given the go ahead is dangerous. the red dots marked here are the location of videos we verified that peer along the route. now some of those are where gunfire can be heard, others show injured palestinans being carried. now the ghf has denied that there had been any instant or fatalities at or near any of its distribution sites. it's worth saying there are also other aid providers trying to distribute aid, but they say they're relying on israeli authorities to facilitate their missions. for example, "we've also verified footage relating to other aid sites that aren't related to the ghf, like this video in the southern city of carnus, that was posted on the 17th of june, where we can see people running before you can hear a loud bang. other extremely graphic footage from the scene showed at least 21

bodies, more injured people and damaged vehicles. witnesses told the bbc that idf drones and a tank fired at the crowd as they were waiting to collect aid. the israely..." told bbc verify that it identified a gathering next to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of karn unis and near idf troops operating in the area. they said they were aware of reports of injured individuals from idf fire following the crowd's approach and that the idf regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals. there's been international criticism of this new plan and the impact it has on palestinians trying to get aid. sarah elizabeth dill, a legal expert told us mass shootings during civilian relief access, violate core rules against targeting civilians and using starvation against them, potentially rising to war crimes. the idf told us that its forces conduct systematic learning processes aimed at improving the operational response in the area

and minimizing possible friction between the population and the idea forces. meanwhile, the ghf told us that ultimately the solution is more aid, which will create more certainty and less urgency. the population that's merlin thomas from bbc verify, well a little earlier i spoke to the father of atan moore who was seized and abducted by hamas on the 7th of october in those attacks and i asked him for the latest information he had on his son still being held there. aitan is our eldest son, 25 years old, he was a security guard. the nova festival and he was kidnapped at 12:30 by gaza's civilians with with knives, not by hamas terrorists, and the the last life life sign was uh three months ago, and since then we

didn't receive anything, of course from hamas, hamas didn't provide the list of the hostages to the israeli government. "and right now i don't know anything about my son, about his condition, nothing. it must be an unimaginable moment uh for you and your family, and uh, our thoughts go to you at this extremely difficult time. uh, if i, i, i can understand that of course, your thoughts are very much on your son, but i wonder if i could ask you about the situation on the ground in gaza, you you clearly are aware..." of the uh catastrophic situation when it comes to aid delivery, are you in favor of withholding aid deliveries to gaza as uh some kind of means of leverage over hamas? look, hamas cannot

help the the humanitarian aid, okay? the hamas must be, must be destroyed by israel, israel must achieve uh... its uh were goals to destroy hamas and to and to release its hostages and i think that the solution has to be by define area zone of humanitarian aid for the civilians, we have to separate the civilians from hamas terrorists, and to say to all gaza civilians, you have you have... opportunity to get food, to get water, whatever you want, but you have to go to this area, and if someone chooses to stay in the combat zones, so he is is is saying that is from, so if he is

from us, you will be die, okay, so we don't want to... i understand what you are saying and i and also we have a slight interference on your line uh but uh at the moment the aid distribute. is how you describe it with these these points being set up in the south of gaza and gazans having to cross combat zones, get to the distribution points and many of them are being killed at the aid distribution points. i understand how your what your your depth of your feeling against hamas, but when you see the pictures of hundreds of thousands of people of of gaza who are not the hamas gunmen who stormed israel and seized your son, do you feel that that is the right approach by the israeli government, a kind of weaponization of aid in that

way? yes, so first of all, we we have a very clear um rules, the israeli soldiers do not shoot civilians, okay, that for sure. look, there is enough food in gaza, but the problem is that hamas stold all the trucks, thousands of trucks. um more than thousand of trucks, hundred and hundreds of thousands of trucks uh was stolen by hamas, so hamas is the problem and not israel, israel want to to finish this this war, and if hamas will will surrender and give us our ostages, the war can be stopped right now, so i think... that we don't want to kill babies and women, i think that israel should uh define a a a special zone for them of

humanitarian aid and to to keep fighting hamas until hamas will will be surrounder. do you are you in favor potentially of israel committing to a permanent end? to the war in gaza, if that is the price that hamas is placing on a ceasefire agreement, getting your son back home. no, of course not, i want my son right now, okay, right now, but i understand that i'm a part of this state, and israel cannot allow the hamas regime to stay in our border, okay, so hamas should be destroyed, should... go away to uh to another country, but they cannot stay here, we don't have anything with with the with the arab

civilians in gaza, but we we do have with hamas, hamas could not stay in gaza, speak more there, whose son atan is one of the 50 hostages still being held in gaza, well let's get the view from inside the gaza strip. now uh we heard a little earlier from liz olcock who is the head of protection at the charity medical aid for palestinians, she's actually just across the border in southern gaza and she said the situation there is catastrophic. the situation here is, it's absolutely devastating. i struggled to to find the words, it's an absolute humanitarian catastrophe on such unparalleled and epic proportions. it's unlike anything that i and and many other aid work. because here have ever seen, we have a situation where we have a

systematic and deliberate policy and practice of starving the palestinian people by not allowing in food which can be distributed at household level, as has always been the system, a dignified and safe way, um, we have skyrocketing prices of the very few goods that are available on the market that people can't afford, "we have no fuel um to operate hospitals, um, water, sal desalination plants, trucking of water to deliver um water to people in displacement sites, um, we have waterborn diseases because of the reliance on unclean water because of that, we have high rates of of other infections due to in sanitary conditions, we have children dying of malnutrition, and of course..." now we have people being directly a targeted when they're trying to receive food aid um by the israeli military um through

this so-called humanitarian system which is absolutely not delivering aid and absolutely is not humanitarian. we have medics in hospitals who were receiving children as young as seven and eight with israeli bullets lodged in their brains. um so the israelis as you have quoted can and do say um many things. it doesn't necessarily mean that any of it is true. liz olcock there from medical aid for palestinians in southern gaza. well, all the news at the moment from the israeli government is that they are pushing for a cease fire in gaza, that also coming from the trump administration and steve witkoff, his envoy in chief, both of whom say that they believe an agreement could be close, and yet there are still intractable problems between the two sides to try to bring to an end this 630-day war. we will have much more coming up for you throughout the day from the israel gaza border around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

"this is frontier country, broaden your horizons. if this is what being a 21st century nemad is all about, sign me up. caribbean's relationship with this seas are changing rapidly and deepen your understanding. this dish is one of the most exciting dish in her north. it tastes fantastic. what must it have been like for them, not knowing whether they were going to make it. how important is this region to the rest of the world? if some..." starts changing here, we see the change all over the world. this is just incredible. the travel show on bbc news. the uk's royal navy is embarking on its most ambitious indo-pacific deployment in decades. it's being build as a show of force, reaffirmation of alliances and a signal of britain's global ambitions. but in a world of rising tensions and shrinking

budgets, is this mission bold leadership or strategic overreach? the uk government is hoping that rebel labor empees will now vote for its welfare reforms next week after a series of concessions last night. the prime minister had been facing an embarrassing defeat in the commons with more than 120 labor backbenchers threatening to vote against his plans. but late on thursday night came a climb down from downing street. now key elements of the welfare reforms will only affect future claiments. not current ones. here's our political correspondent laila nathu. opposition to the government's planned welfare reforms has been noisy both outside and inside parliament. more than 120 labor mps had threatened to block the legislation when it comes to the commons next week. so, at the 11th hour, ministers were forced to make concessions. i really

believe these are positive changes. uh, we've worked hard to get agreement on this. really, really strong commitment to the principles of reforming our welfare state. those you can work should get help, and we have the biggest ever investment into employment support for sick and disabled people, but also to protect those who can never work, make sure their incomes are protected and make sure they're never reassessed again. the governments agreed that there will be no cuts for those currently receiving personal independence payment or the health element of universal credit. those claim. in the future though, will face reductions, spending on getting people into work will be brought forward, and there's a promise to consult disabled people over further changes. on the air waves this morning, support for the climbdown from a prominent labor mp who's been leading the criticism. good morning to you. a lot of us were very concerned, we were having people come to our surgeries on personal independence payments, really

worried about what this would mean for them in the future, and so this guarantees them that support as well as people with the health. related benefit of of of universal element of universal credit. so you will vote now for the measure? i will, and i think there's some other reassuring measures coming through. ministers had argued that the overall benefits bill was unsustainable and so savings needed to be made. these promised changes now create a problem for the treasury which has to find the money from elsewhere. and while some labour back benches are now satisfied, not all have been one over. it would create a two-tier system in both pip. and the universal credit health elements based on when somebody became disabled, so you can have someone with the same disability, the same needs, one would get pip, one wouldn't, one would get more in universal credit and one would get less, that bakes in future um poverty for for future disabled people, the tories say their support is conditional, if he can meet our

three conditions that we will support him, that he has to reduce the welfare budget, that he's has to make sure people get into work, at the moment the bill doesn't do that, the u-turn makes it even worse, and they have to commit to not having more tax rises. none of those things are on reasonable uh requests, the chancellor herself said no new tax rises, but we want the prime minister to make those commitments and he won't do that, instead he's just giving up. this is now the third u-turn in quick succession that the government's made under pressure. kier starmer now faces a challenge to manage his own mps who know he can be forced. to change his mind. laila nafu, bbc news, westminster. the foreign ministers of the democratic republic of congo and rwanda are expected to officially sign a peace deal in washington later today. "there's been conflict in the region for decades, which escalated earlier this year when the m-23 rebel group seized mineral rich territory in the eastern drc. the authorities

there say rwanda backs the m-23 rebels, while rwanda in turn accuses the democratic republic of congo of backing another rebel group, the fdlr, accusations denied by both governments. while president trump has taken credit for the deal which was mediated by the us and qatar, and says his administrator..." has stopped a very vicious war. fred baumer is a human rights activist and the executive director of butelli, a research institute based in kinshasa. he's been telling me what the new deal will look like. well, we don't know, we don't know much, and we of course waiting to see after the signing, but at least the what we know is that um, the the deal will be signed today, and that is an important milestone, what you also know. is that the the part of the deal will require that runda withdraw from from eastern drc at least some point and also the

congolase government commits to fights against ftlr and also there will be some some verification mechanism in between we also know that there are discussions again around economic components so of like economic integration as is a part of the lasting solution and which is of course conditioned by the return of peace and last thing we know is that there are components on humanitarian aspects including the support to monosco and the return of refugees and and displacement people in areas affected by the conflict. of course the success of this will be measured by the implementation of it won't it? yeah, the the big question mark on on this process of course is the it implementation

and there is a lot of barriers to to a successful implementation, we don't know what will be the guarantee for m23 or ruanda to withdraw from from th from those area, there is a lot of question on the willingness even for the those actors to to withdraw the... capacity of congoles government to fight against fdlr is another is another question and and political aspect of of of the conflict that involves some of some actors like corney nanga or joseph kabila are not part of these discussions, but will play a big role in the success or the failure of of this agreement. yeah, we we know that the united states is interested. in the mineral resources in the region, do you think that we would have got to this point, the point of signing a peace deal without president trump's way of operating? i mean, i

think the the us itself, the this administration and the involvement of trump and and his senior advisor part of the reason why there is this signing, we remember that last year angola under the the african union mandates has been trying to has tried to to broke a deal between congo and ruanda and it failed a few days before the signing so i think the diplomatic and political wayton of the us is a key part of of the signing uh the question is how long the us will continue to be interested in in actually waiting for the implementation of this agreements um if if they continue we can expect some progress in coming week or months, but without that it's very likely that we go back to to to normal, so yeah, the

interest of this the current government on mining, on critical mining, on on countering china and somehow on on gaining some success in in bringing peace in some regions is a key factor here, okay, but the implementation will still be to be to be monitored. fred bum was speaking to me earlier. now we can show you some pictures coming to us from venice, blue skies there and italy's health ministry warning of scorching hot temperatures in several regions of the country over the weekend including in venice, a level three red alert issued for cities including rome and florence. it's thought it could be more than 37 degrees celsius and of course in venice there the wedding of the billionaire amazon boss jeff bezos is taking place. scientists say the extreme heat is an indicator of climate change and some of the protesters uh about this over this wedding are saying all those private jets flying in are not helping the...

stay with us here on bbc news. hello there, a heat wave is going to be gripping large parts of europe over the coming few days. the heat building with the sunshine underneath this developing area of high pressure, steering most of the rain, well to the north, particularly across scandinavia and in the northeast of europe. here we've got some stronger winds as well as some rain and that is keeping it a little bit cooler. now move our way into the southeast, it still could be a few thunders. storms around, i think heading into a saturday, perhaps extending their way into greece, but moving away from the balkans, looking dry across central parts of mediterranean, sunny weather, hot weather here, still hot across spain and portugal, that heat is building its way further north across france heading its way towards england and wales and across central parts of europe, still rather mixed weather through scandinavia, the northeast of europe, keeping it cooler, wetter and a bit windier here, but elsewhere as you head into central.

and southern parts of europe, it's hot, it's dry, and it's going to be sunny as well, and that heat is going to last for a few days, longer, but we will eventually see some changes into the uk, into france, but not until probably tuesday or wednesday, and further south, it's still dry, hot and sunny, temperatures not changing very much at all, the heat will build over the next few days in berlin, cool weather weather in moscow and not too much change in the southeast of europe. she is one of the best selling latin artists of all time, with more than 95 million records,

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wanted to kind of revisit my my earlier inspiration in my career and like sort of once and for all own it as my invention. if you can play this more italian, think of a like um opera, berlini opera, think of like maria calas, more free, yeah, more free. as a writer, i care so much about the human imagination, about creativity about our ability to tell stories, just imagine our lives without story telling and i mean, be bleak inspiring arts and culture on bbc news now on bbc news the latest from new york and around the world business today.

live from new york at the opening bell, this is business today, wall street, zeroing in on record highs as investors focus more on positive trade news than disappointing consumer spending data, signed and sealed, the world's economic heavyweights put pen to paper on a trade agreement with the promise of more. come between the us and china, plus the new rules of the game. nike says it will cut its reliance on chinese factories as trump's tarif forces a rethink, and uk car production hits the brakes as increased us charges provide a major bump in the road. welcome to business today, live from new york, i'm michelle.